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Power Supply Torture Test
An anonymous reader writes "With the latest batch of power hungry graphics cards, the PSU in your computer is more important than ever. If you're looking for a new power supply, check out this group test. They've tested 19 PSUs - some good, some bad and some downright explosive!"
its not a lie, at least not more than pmpo.
... , making it able to deliever 500W, just not all at once.
I have seen 250W pmpo speakers that ran of a 10W psu...
You could also argue that the psu has 500W: if you only need 12v, you can get 20 amps, and if you only want 5v,
I would say that this isnt anymore lying than pmpo (both sucks)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Yup, that wattage rating is pretty much for marketing purposes. Instead, add up the wattage delivered by the three "+" volt lines which will give you a better idea of the actual maximum power output available to your components.
Even then, cheaper PSUs tend to be a little liberal with these figures and many burn up when approaching their advertised maximum load.
There are other factors such as voltage stability and efficiency that should also be taken into consideration.
I guess the moral here is that when it comes to PSUs, brand name can be important. Enermax and Kingwin PSUs have always treated me well, and Sparkle has also for a less expensive alternative.
I always stress the importance of getting a good power supply when I give advice for building PCs, but it seems like something people are largely willing to gloss over, and just go for some cheap no-name with high wattage. It's nice to see a review for these, finally...
But, of the companies on here, I've never even [i]heard[/i] of Tagan, and it seems a bit sketchy that Tagan wins best honors in their review... which was conducted in Tagan's lab.
Furthermore, why aren't Sparkle or Antec power supplies tested? Along with Enermax, they're widely regarded as some of the best around.
well.. then again: don't buy shit.
i'm torturing an enermax 303watter now.. drawing ~25amps from the 12v line and it's holding at 11.94v(no, it's not driving a computer and quite frankly i expected it to break or shut down but it hasn't done so yet).
if the highet watt rated one feels lighter than the proper psu's cardboard box you'll know it's a hoax.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Yeah, i dont.
I wasnt bothered because of the dismissal of the bad psus, but of the defence of PMPO (which really sucks bad).
I, too have an enermax. I used to hate them because my first enermax was one of those first dual fan ones with a wrongly placed thermal sensor (intants turbine sound), but the new one i really liked.
Upgraded from a 450W noname to a 365W enermax, because the noname could power 8hds, but the enermax can.
But there was no lying involved. the 450W one had 330W combined power on 3&5V, and only 14 amps on the 12V rail, the enermax has over 20 on the 12V.
So just different specs.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
My last desktop had to be built twice. Once with a good motherboard, good ram, good processor and Cheap case, the second time with a much better enclosure.
If that case and PS is $45, just HOW MUCH money do you think they're devoting to clean power?
On a more positive note, the new system is dam-near silent as the better case had a large slow moving variable speed fan controlled by the better PS.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
I spent some of my electronics engineering apprenticeship in Unit Test where I had to test 5V 300A and 5V 600A power supplies.
We had a FET-based active load for testing and we had to bolt the PSUs to the load with 1 inch copper braid, put the units in a thick plexiglass/Perspex cage and run them at 110% of rated load for 10 minutes.
When we got busy, one of the other engineers soldered up a ton of wirewound resistors to act as a load and fitted them into a spare 19" rack with a large red 'emergency stop' button on the top to cut off the power. The whole rig looked like a McGyver special, but it worked and I wasn't too afraid to use it-but when we got VERY busy, I was told to forget about bolting on the braids, just hold them in place, wind up the active load to 110% and keep it there for 20 secs and 'that will do' - I refused, much to the annoyance of the Unit Test manager who couldn't actually force me to do so!
The guy who made up the resistor load was really mad - it was the era of the BBC micro and he'd lashed up his own floppy drive, but discovered that he couldn't copy one particular game or program because the drive he was using wouldn't step properly to one of the 'hidden tracks' (or something like that), so he bought an official external drive (for some crazy price - it was 1982, after all), did his copying and then hooked up the ground wire of our PSUs to the chassis of the floppy drive and dragged a wire hooked to the +5v line around all the chips' legs - end result was tons of sparks and one very smoky unit which he took back for a full refund. Apparently he complained bitterly to the shop about the way the drive had suddenly 'exploded'.
This was also the guy that fell over and broke his leg walking across the car park one sunny day - we really couldn't work out how he managed it! He also removed all the light fittings from a temporary work cabin the night before it was due to go back to the hire shop - when the hire company came to pick it up, they refused to take it so our boss called us all together and said it might be a good idea if the light fittings returned 'tonight' - lo, next day they were all back in place.
AT&ROFLMAO
Please define "fails".
Is a little under/overvoltage on any of the output "fails"? How little?
Is a little ripple on any of the output "fails"? How little?
Is lack of ability to stand input voltage (AC) noise or under/overvoltage "fails"?
How about missing AC cycles?
Is huge noise "fails"?
Is ten year life span "fails"?
I used to work for a municipal utility, and one day I got a call from the power plant that one of their machines' monitors was "rainbowy". I get down there to check it out, and sure enough, it has colored ripples all through the screen. I reach to grab the monitor off the CPU, and the monitor is extremely hot! I grab the the CPU, and it literally burns me. The machine was so hot, it was cooking the monitor making colored ripples fly through the screen.
I unplugged the thing, waited 20 minutes or so for it to cool down, and cracked open the case. The power supply fan was completely clogged with coal dust, the inside of the case was filled with the stuff. I literally poured coal dust out of the case into a trash bin. Replaced the power supply and spent several hours cleaning the coal dust out of every part of the case.
Working there was an interesting place. You couldn't set anything on a desk because the vibration would move things slowly to the edge until it fell off. I watched sweepers sweeping coal dust off the floor, and a hundred feet behind them, new coal dust was settling down again.
Also there are things like overvoltage and overcurrent protection. These will shut the power supply down in order to avoid damaging components. I believe one or two of the PS in the tests did do this.
The overcurrent protection is one reason it is good to have a properly sized power supply, one that is neither too large nor too small. If you use a power supply that's overbuilt, it will happily toast your components by supplying them with amperage that obviously is indicative of a component failure. By not shutting down, the malfunctioning component can generate large amounts of heat that stress and destroy other components. You end up with a machine with loads of problems, not just one. Yep, a good power supply is a lot more than a transfomer, diodes, and a few capacitors. Myself, I think I've only ever had one problem with a computer power supply. They've been pretty good to me.
I watched sweepers sweeping coal dust off the floor, and a hundred feet behind them, new coal dust was settling down again.
That stuff isn't very good for your lungs either. I know people who had to do a few days of work experience as a medical student in a coal mining place, and they were coughing up stuff for days afterwards, as if they had been smokers for years.